MMA Fighting - #473 – Valentina Shevchenko, Dominick Reyes

Episode Date: March 18, 2019

On this episode of The MMA Hour, Luke Thomas speaks to UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko about her her UFC 238 title bout against Jessica Eye, the state of the division, more; Dominick Reyes about his UFC London win over Volkan Oezdemir, his position on the light heavyweight division, what’s next and more. We also take your questions on the latest news in MMA on Sound Off and A Round of Tweets, plus we discuss Jorge Masvidal’s post-fight brawl with Leon Edwards on Is Normal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Monday, March 18th, and this is the MMA hour, right here on MMAFighting.com. Thank you guys so much for joining me. I greatly appreciate it. My name is Luke Thomas. I am the host of this program. Okay, whoops. Lost my screen there for a second.

Let's see. Now we've got to do face ID so this thing comes on. I'll get to that in a second. All right. Who's on the show today? Well, we were supposed to have Jorge Mazbidol. I have no idea what happened there, so that's fine. But we are going to have UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shavchenko.

She will be on a little bit later in the show at around 1240 rising UFD light heavyweight. Dominic Reyes will be here. And that should be a lot of fun. Plus, you'll be my guest on the soundoff when we take your calls using the number 844-66-2468. We'll do a round of your tweets. Keep sending them using the hashtag the MMA hour. We really appreciate that as well. And we're going to try out a new segment.

It is the brainchild of one Danny Segura. It is called Is Normal. I have no idea how that's going to go, but we're going to find out. So far, the day has been absolutely terrible. Kids always remember something that I learned in the movie, what was it, that one, with the Fishman, the Guillermo del Toro movie. I forget. Anyway, there's a line in there called Life is the Shipwreck of Our Dreams. That is the best advice I can give somebody.

All right. So, hope you had a happy weekend. Lundon was on Saturday, UFC Nashville's upcoming, lots of different things to get to. First and foremost, the Monday morning analyst, that is going to be a YouTube exclusive. So if you are listening on the podcast, we cut that out. You can just get it exclusively online. I want to make sure you had a seamless audio experience. All right, let's do it now.

Joining us on the hotline is a man who is surging through the light-heavy. where it ranks. He had a very good. It was a close fight, but I think he gutted it out in the end. The one and only Dominic Reyes is here. Hi, Dominic. How are you?

I'm excellent. Luke. How are you doing today? Oh, terrible, but what else is new, my friend? Are you back home, or are you? Now I'm a sightseeing right now in London. How is London? It's pretty cool.

It's actually cold, but it's nice. It's a nice city. It's very expensive. You do know that now, right? Oh, yeah. I've been here for two weeks now. Right on. All right.

Let's talk about it. How did you feel about your performance from Saturday? I feel like it was a gut check kind of fight for me. You know, I had to find that next year. I'm not completely satisfied with my performance. I know I got a lot more to show. But I came away with the wind, and that's all it matters. All right.

What went right and what went wrong? Like, give me a sense of, because you got the win, so that went right. terms of what you guys had planned and anticipated. Let's start there. What went right? Well, I controlled the distance pretty well. I was, my face and fakes were working. But I think I just gave him, you know, too much respect to be quite honest.

I respected him more than I did my own thing. You know, instead of just going out and just doing my thing, you know, I was worried about what he was doing and his power and things like that. ended up working out, but going forward, I'm definitely just going to focus on playing my game. Why do you think that happened? I mean, he was a huge profile fight, you know. He was number two in the world one fight ago, you know, and I had a lot of respect for him and his power. And I think it was his power in bold hands that made me kind of rethink my game plan.

Was his power what you thought in the end? Like, was your expectation of it, the reality? It was, but it wasn't at the same time because he didn't knock me out. So, yeah, he's definitely a powerful guy and he hits it very hard, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to put me out. All right, so let's talk about what went wrong. Like, what did you game plan for that just didn't quite materialize? That's a tough one.

I mean, I pretty much did everything I was. I was game plan to do. I just didn't pull the trigger as much as I would like to. Huh. And again, went back to just the profile of it all? Yeah. That's interesting.

You've been on some big cards. I mean, this was a big card, you know, for the place it was in. But, I mean, this isn't like,

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it wasn't a huge UFC pay-per-view. You've been on some big cards. I'm a little surprised to hear this, you know? Well, it wasn't about, like, the cards. it was about the opponent more than anything this is my highest profile opponent to date

but I feel like my most dangerous opponent today and I kind of overthaw things you know you don't always have your your best performance you know luckily for me I uh I still came away with the win you know what I mean so I'm learning off of the win as well how nervous were you when it went to the scorecards I mean anytime it goes to the scorecards you

It's always nerve-wracking, and we don't know which way it's going to go ever. So I was nervous. But I guess, like, when the final bell ended, what were you saying to yourself? Like, I did enough to get that, or I don't know what's about to happen here? I thought I did enough, and I was like, all right, we'll see what happens. Like, not to me at this point. I did what I could in this fight, and we'll see what the judges have to say about it. And it didn't look like you had any gas tank issues

You felt good there, right? Oh, dude. Yeah, I feel like that's what won me to fight. You know, I kept the pressure on him, you know, throughout, you know, as he started winning, I was getting stronger. And I think that that's what won me to fight. My gas tank, I feel like my gas tank was leaps and bounds better than it was my last fight. There's no doubt about it.

In fact, I think your gas tank's been good since we've seen you in the UFC. see. Now, some of your fights have all ended pretty well, pretty early. But even against St. Peru, you finish strong there as well. Have you noticed that light heavyweights tend to not have the best gas tank? Yeah, I mean, it's honestly, it's tough, man. I mean, being as big as we are and moving, you know, as explosively as we do, it's big energy drains. You know, almost every movement is an energy drain.

I mean, you're a big guy yourself, so when you start doing explosive movement, you get tired quicker than the smaller guys. I mean, it's just the reality of the situation. All right. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean, I'm happy, man. I'm super happy with everything. The way it all came out. All right, fair enough. Now, let's talk about some of the realities of this win.

Heading into this fight, you were sitting at, I believe, eighth or so. Volcan was at sixth. But Blahovic is sitting at five, and he's coming off of a loss, I believe. Where do you think this should put you? Right around five. So this is a top five. You believe you're a top five light heavyweight now? Yes.

Now, obviously the question's going to be what that means, because you've got Cormier sitting at one, but I don't know if he's going to fight light heavyweight again. So that's kind of out of the window. Gustafin's got a fight coming up against Anthony Smith. John Jones is looking for someone. That next one down is going to be Tiago Santos. And then if you got into the top five, you'd only be separated by Anthony Smith. So the question is as follows. It's a long-wind way of asking it. How far do you think you are from a title shot, given your, your current trajectory. I need another fighter in my belt before I fight John. So maybe one, one, two more. We're dancing. Did you watch his last

fight against Smith? I did. What did you make of it? I did. Championship performance, man. I mean, he's a champ for a reason. He's a great game plan. And he did his thing.

It was just classic John, you know, neutralizing you. opponent and getting to win. Have you at all thought about what it might be like to fight him both, A, in terms of the pressure, and then be the actual task of it? Yeah, I've thought of it before. But that's something like you don't really think too hard on it until he can get there. You know, when I first came into MMA, it was always, you know, trained to beat John.

I'd do everything right. You can beat John when you do fight him. So I think when the time comes, I'll be ready. I know it's coming soon, so I'm getting there, man. You certainly are. I mean, look, the good news is you're well on your way. The question is, I don't think you're very far at this point. So I guess, like, in looking at when people are fighting him,

what do you notice about how, or I should say, why they lose? Okay, yes, John's very good. But is there any common thread? I think the common thread would be people kind of get in their own head and let John dictate the pace of the fight. as opposed to just throwing caution into the wind or, you know,

I feel Gus did it best with his movement and his, you know, avoiding those, those knee kicks and the, the awkward, like, John puts you an awkward situation.

He'll make you do things that you're not as comfortable doing, but he'll put you there. And I think it's about being comfortable, being uncomfortable against John. How much of a learning process? was the, yeah, no, it does. How much of a learning process was this towards that end? Oh, it was huge, man. I mean, I got to go three rounds, you know. Um, arctagon time is invaluable.

Yeah, in that time and there and, you know, mid-fight, I decided, I'm going to win this fight. And if I get knocked out, I get knocked out. Like, that was part of it. You know, I grew mid-fight. and I know without a doubt my cardio will hold up you know I was pushing it throughout and I just felt like I was getting stronger and then in terms of game planning doing what I want to do I mean this was a good experience because I didn't do exactly what I wanted to do in this fight

and I recognize what that what happened and then how to address it going forward. So it's like one of those, like, I'm not going to just worry about my point only, like, never again thing. Like, it's about me going forward. That's interesting, the choice you made. I've heard other athletes say that kind of thing. So then let me ask you this way.

If you said that to yourself halfway through and that's what propelled you to victory, that's amazing. What were you telling yourself when the fight started? It was similar. And there was a moment where I had them in the first. round I got his timing I was like I got you and then I was going to start doing my thing and then I didn't and I couldn't I can't explain why or what happened but I just I felt like he was going to cover me with everything I was doing I had his timing but it felt like he had mine

huh so when you hear people say like in a fight where they just weren't themselves um maybe you've never had that before, but maybe now you can understand what they at least mean? I could definitely relate. I could definitely relate. So when you told yourself, okay, no, no, F this. I'm not going out like this. This is, this is going to be my fight for the taking. Like, did you get a rush of energy? Was it a calm decision? What was it? It was like a rush and then like I felt free. Hmm. And then I was just going. That ever happened to you when you play football or anything?

It has before. I think what happened was I got like, you think you stink. And I started thinking. I started thinking too much. And I just let go. And I said, just fight. Fight.

You are, you're great. Just do it. And I did. Now, are you a guy that watches a lot of tape? So this is so funny to me. Sometimes I talk to fighters and they're like, I can't watch enough tape. And then some are like, I don't watch any.

And then some are kind of in between. on that spectrum, where are you? I'm on the, I watch a lot of tape, sorry. Now, do you think that maybe, like, do you think maybe you want to change that? I mean, understand the nature of what I'm asking. I am not prescribing it to you, nor am I in a position to do so,

but I'm wondering if this fight has you maybe reconsidering that. No, not at all. It was just, I think it was just a growing opportunity for me mid-fight, and it was a growing opportunity me as a fighter period where, you know, I'm equally as dangerous as any opponent I'm going to fight. And they have to worry about me just as much that I have to worry about them. So why worry about them so much?

How fast can you make a rebound if need be? I think it's going to be a couple months, maybe two months or so. Did you FC say anything to you about their plans this year? No, I haven't talked to anybody yet. I've just kind of been staying low key and just enjoying my time out near London with my family. All right. So I haven't been talking to anyone right now. So then let's figure this out.

You just got to, I mean, you're on a, this is an incredible wind streak you're on. Again, you joined the UFC back in June of 2017. Since then, you've won all of your fights, one, two, three, four, five of them. Let's ask you it this way. Let's say you get a title shot this year. Would you rather be against John Jones or as long as it's for the belt, It doesn't matter. I'd rather be against John.

I would definitely rather be against John. To be the guy that beats him? Yes. But you take a title shot no matter what, though, right? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, yes. But I would love to be the guy.

You know, it's not many times in your life are you, you know, get the opportunity to do something like that. You ever crossed paths in any of your previous athletic endeavor? against like a super special athlete? Well, I mean, Josh Norman was in my conference. He was a very good athlete. Washington Redskine.

Yeah. That's probably, I mean, yeah, NFL receivers, you know, NFL cornerbacks, NFL cornerbacks, in my opinion, I was the most athletic people on the planet. So, yeah. Although Norman's a bit overpaid, if I do say so myself. but that's a separate reason. Well, look, man, I know you're with your family.

I don't want to keep you. Look, it was not every win is the easiest or the prettiest, but the win streak is alive. You're still undefeated, and you're just continuing to climb these ranks. I appreciate your time and enjoy London. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. And, yeah, I'll be talking to you soon.

I'm sure you will be. All right, there he goes. Dominic Reyes. I think I almost called him Dominic Cruz. Okay, so we have to change things up on the show today. So let's do it this way. Why don't we now do a round of tweets?

All right. Five minutes on the clock. When they go up, that thing will start. Let's see. All right. Which statement is most true? Number one, Till was overhyped, two. Masvedal was underrated. Three, Woodley Change Till.

Four, Mazvedal got way better during his time off. Most true would be Mazvedal was underrated. He is the most underrated fighter relative to the casual audience that I can think of. I do think that Till's rank and assessment probably deserves some recalibration and I do not believe that Woodley changed him.

There may be something to be said for four that Mazvedol got better during his time off. Next. How much of a push do you think Jorge Mazvedal will get after his win over Darren Till? And who do you think he'll realistically face next? Well, if you saw Ali Abdel-Aziz tweeting, he said that they didn't even want to get

the title shot to Colby that they wanted to give it to Jorge. Now, Jorge's win, I thought, was really nice. I showed you why I think it was really nice. But he was coming off of two losses previous to that. And so now you're in a position where as good as that win was and as criminally underrated as I think he's been, you know, Colby's win streak is what it is. I think people just have to kind of make peace with it. You know, Camaro thinks he's going to put a beating on him.

So then go put a beating on him and put that to bed. It's kind of my attitude. I'd like to see Jorge fight one more. As much of a fan I am of his game, I'd like to see one more. Next. Had Edwards shown he's UK Europe's number one Walterweight, and although not got the fan favorite style

with KOs of Till, his all-around game is superior. Is he the number one welterweight out of the UK? Yes. Yes. I think that the media... I think his media approach could be changed. I think he's a little too reserved But this rivalry with Whatever you want to call it with

Masvedol will certainly help things But yeah he's got a bit of a grinding round winning style But he absolutely is deserving of respect For how good of a fighter he is next Would be interested to hear your thoughts On the judging of the UFC London card Seems to be some strange decisions in two or three fights Without really knowing exactly which one you were referring to

Maybe even the Dominic Reyes one Again I don't really have to have the same reservations about this kind of stuff that some of you guys do. I'm not saying all the decisions were great or that I even necessarily agree with them. But when you have a scoring criteria that is so open for interpretation, that two people can pick two different winners, that your subjective experience about where you sit could determine it, the fact that you have no data can impact it,

the fact that you can't go back and change your scorecard, the fact that we judge round by round, all of these different factors to me explain, the gross discrepancies we see in interpretive, you know, evaluations. So unless I see someone that's really crazy, which I did not see, I understand your frustration, we are stuck. We are stuck. Next. Should the UFC be more proactive with looking after fighters' mental health? Considering the dangers of CTE and the mindset it takes to be a fighter, could there eventually

be a mental health crisis in MMA? Certainly that storm could be coming. In the UFC's defense, they are major proactive participants in the Cleveland Clinic Brain Study, and they, of course, have done a measure of fighter insurance. I think, honestly, if I can be candid with you, expecting the UFC to do any more than they've already done probably just is not realistic. You can say that they have a moral obligation, but here in the real world, what is actually possible,

I simply don't understand that. I would argue it's up to the fighters themselves to be stewards of their own future, but as we know, they are typically reluctant to do. do that kind of thing. Next. If you had to pick a team of three fighters to have your back during the zombie apocalypse, who would they be? Ooh, well, if we're going to just talk about rando stuff, first of all, the guy's picture there for his Twitter page is Eddie Hall. Shots to Eddie Hall, 500 kilo deadlifter. I would say, I would say Prime Fador, Vanderlei Silva, and then Tim Kennedy.

because Tim Kennedy would be my weapons specialist. Maybe Brian Stan too. I don't know. Next. Nathaniel Wood is going straight to the top of the Bantamweight Division and nobody is stopping him. I don't know about nobody, but is he going straight to the top of the division? I mean, there can be no doubt. Next. What's one additional element, or what one additional element would most positively impact Gunney's overall game? More varied offense in the clinch, chained takedown attempts, higher striking output. His takedown attempts are pretty good.

you could say more varied offense than the clinch, sure, higher striking output he is a little judicious. I don't think he's in bad shape too. I think he's in good physical shape. I think he's a little bit outgunned in terms of physical strength in that division because you got to remember

there are some very strong people in that division and he is strong from what I'm told from people who have trained with him. But there are times when you can see it's just a little bit, it makes just enough of a difference. You could say have more frequent offense. That's fine.

varied offense in the clinch, that's a good thing too. Chain takedowns, no, higher striking output a little bit. But if you married a little bit of higher frequent output with, I think, physical strength, that would open up some other parts of his game inside the clinch, inside these wrestling exchanges, that could then make way for offense in terms of striking if the wrestling itself was not positively benefited. There's a question of how much that would slow him down. So I'm positing a scenario where he can add that without too much of an issue related to speed differential.

Okay, let's do it now if we can. I spoke to the women's UFC flyweight champion of the world. She is in Thailand training and getting her sister ready, of course, for UFC St. Petersburg. We talked about Jessica I, who she's facing at UFC 238, and some of the comments Jessica I made about the best way to beat Valentina. I've spoken to Valentina many times, many times. This is my favorite interview I've ever done with her. She was effusive, happy, not on edge, but gave no quarter to Jessica.

I was really interesting. Here's our conversation. And I'm joined now by the women's UFC flyway champion Valentina Shvchenka, who appears to be in paradise. You're in Thailand. First of all, I know you travel around a lot, and I know you've trained in Thailand before. Why are you back there? Yes, you're right.

totally. We are in Thailand spending every time a lot of time. And I think we are maybe already like 10, more than 10 years traveling back and forth to Thailand. And this is one of my favorite places to be and to train, to prepare for the flights, like everything. And especially this occasion, why we are here right now, it's because of preparation for my sister's fight Antonina she will fight 20 of April in San Petersburg in Russia it's gonna be first female UC fight in Russia in the all history of UCT so we are here now we're training camp for her fight and also like on the on the on the way for starting training camp for my fight as well

that's interesting do you know who your sister is Do you know how your sister's fighting? For sure, yes. For sure, yes. It's Roxanne Medifery. Got it. Okay. So it's interesting.

So you guys are trying to, well, your fight's going to be in June, right? So you're still very early in the process. I guess she is pretty close. Yes, it's one month left for her. And I still have about three months ahead of me. Okay. But what is it about Thailand? That's so important for you guys to train there.

You know it's everything. It's not only training, but it's like the spirit of Thailand. It's very nice to be here because we are training here in the camp, Tiger Muay Thai gym. And we have everything all facilities here, like cage, sparring partners. And also the important things, we have good stuff to recover. We have beautiful beaches and great nature. So this is like what I call when you are preparing for the fight, but in the same time you are like resting, like your mind, it's not charged about like thinking, only about training, only about like getting better and better.

You have your time for the training, but also you have your time for recover. And this is more important because you just cannot train like all day long and think it all just about fight. You have to manage and you have to like to make equilibrium between these two. And this is why I think Thailand is a good place. So are you guys going to go from Thailand to Russia or is there going to be other stops along the way before that fight? That happens. And also for you, how much of your camp is going to be back? in the States?

Yes, we're going to go from here to Russia because it's shorter flight than go back to States and go back to Russia. It's going to be very tired. And yes, we're going to do like this. But for my training camp, I think after a half flight, it's going to be all the way to United States. Got it. Okay.

So you're the champion now. So sometimes I talk to fighters and they say, I got the belt and yeah, everything is different. It's crazy. It's this. It's that. Sometimes I talk to fighters who get the championship and they say, you know what? It's not that much different. So where are you?

Me, you know, I was prepared exactly what I will face. And I've been like champion, Muay Thai champion, Kwan champion. Like for 17 times, I hold this like belt. and I want to, I know what to expect. Of course, we are speaking about differently because you see it's the biggest MM organization in the world. But, you know, I know how to manage everything because I understand clearly where's the truth,

where I have to be, what's the number one for me, what I have to do to maintain my belt. And number one, it's to keep training hard and put my legs. into the ground. So without thinking, okay, this is like, that's it. This is the point. But for me, no, it's okay. I reach it. I reached it what I was wanted for all this time. But now it's another time to start to work and to start to keep training hard and be the best because I know everyone will want to take this belt from me. But no one will be able to

to do this because I will train hard. It doesn't matter if I'm champion and what I reached already, I will train very hard and harder than anyone. Is it weird to be in a division where, look, you are a professional and you've been a professional for so many years and your sister as well, right? So there's just this pedigree of professionalism in your family. Is it weird to be in a division where people like me in the media or even just other observers, they all say, oh, there's nobody who can even come close to beating Valentina

Shevchenko in the women's flyweight division. On the one hand, it's got to feel good that people have that kind of confidence. On the other hand, does it play mind games with you a little bit? You know, it's, if it's so, it's good, yeah, but I'm not expecting things like this, because flyweight, it's, and you see, we just created, like UC just created this weight, And you could see that now it's a lot of strong female fighters in this weight class. And a lot of fighters, they move down from 135 and a lot of girls move up from 115. And, you know, I could say that it's going to be the hardest weight division among all girls in UC. And it will be more excited grade class.

And I just, who I am because I'm training a lot. It's not because of something like else. No, it's just I know what exactly I have to do to beat my opponents. And this is where I am. I was dedicated like all my life to martial arts. I'm training since five years old. Already 26 years, I'm like training every day. And this is why I'm here.

This is why everybody seems like this. And I, for sure, I will continue to do the same, to keep the same thought for the people, but in the same time, entertain all my fans and to show just beautiful and, like, very good fights in all my fight. And this is what I want to fight, to perform me as good as I can and enjoy my life.

And how many people there are saying, oh, Valentina, you are in Thailand, you are on vacation. Oh, Valentina, you are here. You're on vacation. But I say it every time, it's not my vacation. It's my lifestyle. It's how I live. I'm not like, for example, if I post in some pictures on the beach, it doesn't matter that I'm not training. I'm training every day.

I can say it's for sure. I train every, every single day. But I know how to enjoy my life. It doesn't mean that if I'm a little bit. on training camp, I will be like just thinking about training. No, I can do both. And I know that it's going to come out much better for my fight. So there's an interesting thing that's happening because now you have a strawweight champ,

you got a flyweight champ, you got a Bantonweight champ. We had a different featherweight champ. Now one is both. But the point being is you're starting to see, you know, multiple women gain titles in the UFC. So when you think about what you want to do as a champion, the answer is always to win as a fighter. to win. I don't mean that. But I guess what I'm wondering is, do you ever think about the idea of what kind of records you want to set as a champion? Like, for example, on the men's side, you've got consecutive defense record set by Demetrius Johnson. You've got all-time number of

defenses by George St. Pierre. Do you think about certain numbers like that that you want to hit, and if so, what are they? You know, I don't want to put any sets. for me any goals for me because I'm not like this it's like it's so like everyone okay I have to to put a goal for me and I have to reach it I do my best I try to be the best in everything what I'm doing but of course the number one like you mentioned it's to win the fight and doesn't matter how many times I'm gonna do it but I'm gonna do it every time every single time when I go into the cage I gonna win the fight because this is my mindset but about the goals of course I want to do the maximum what I can but I don't like to put the

goals to put the numbers or something like this because if you are set up with this it's already in your head and you if you are don't like if you can't reach it you start your mind start to break and you have all kind of troubles and problems I mean not physically but mentally and this is what um usually is the most that why the people they are broken because not because of the body because of like physical issues not because of mental issues and I don't want to put me in this situation I just like want to be number one in everything what I'm doing. And of course, I want to defend my belt as much as I can.

But it doesn't matter what I'm not going to do something else on my way, because the opportunities shows up. You have just to take them. And we'll see what kind of opportunities will show up on my way of the champion of UC. In all of martial arts, Are there certain champions that you really admire maybe more than others? And it could be not necessarily even just MMA. It could be kickboxing as well.

When you think about, like for me, and I'm not a fighter, of course, I'm just an observer, but I'm very impressed by what St. Pierre has done. He's, I think even though he lost him at Sarah and he lost to Matt Hughes to come back and avenge them and to beat that many welterweights, to me that's really impressive. I'm wondering for you, do you have any champions you look past you and take motivation from? You know, a lot of fighters, what I admire, I love their technique, I love their mindset, their style. But every time, you know, number one for me, it was like my favorite fighter. Every time I was watching his fight and was like, this is the dynamic of the fight.

what I want to look like, it's Beni the JetRourkeet. And he's a modern fighter, but when he started to fight in Thailand, it was something like new, it's so interesting. I remember when I was very young and my coach showed me his fight. It was like big videotape. And this like dynamic, this spinning kicks, it was something that I was watching. It was like, wow. It's so beautiful. It's so interesting.

And you know that amazing things that in year 2017, I could meet him personally and I could speak with him. And he was explaining and tell his history how it was the beginning from his side, what he felt, what he thought. And he's so, like, amazing person. I really admire him. And I'm so happy that now I know him personally. It's, I think it's one of the biggest fighter in, like, fighter world. That is a jet, one of the best. All right, so let's talk about your next five.

U.S.E. 238. You're going to be facing Jessica I. What do you think of Jessica I as an opponent? What do you see? I see it's, I know for sure she will go. forward as I saw from her white with Caitlin Chocogan she was every time like putting a lot of pressure but you know what I can see more maybe she could see that she's better than me in grappling maybe she could see she's better than me

in wrestling in striking whatever but I doesn't matter because she's not better than me she's not and I'm prepare me for the fight. I will put the good fight on the show and doesn't matter for me, whatever she will bring. It doesn't matter at all. I just will do easy things. I will win the fight and that's it. Let me read you one quote she gave. I'm not one of these guys who typically likes the, oh, did you hear what they said? But I thought this was kind of interesting. She said the following, quote, speaking about you. One of her biggest weaknesses is her ability to adjust to the fighter she's fighting and be able to do something different. I think being versatile and being a

true martial artist wins this flyweight title and keeps me champion talking about herself for a really long time. Do you, what do you make of the fact that, or the, what do you make of the idea that she sees a lack of ability to adjust? The lack of, I cannot, I think she don't know what she's. about but because it's like not make sense to lack of adjust it's not make sense at all the other things that you have so much technique in your like arsenal you have so much everything to choose the weapon what you're gonna use against your opponent this is what I see this is in my mind the adjustments that you are not just like adjust because you don't

have opportunity to do something else. No, you just choose the right weapon against your opponent. And this is what I will, every time I'm doing. Okay, if you need, like, if I need to go hard, I can go hard. If I need to wait a little bit, I will wait. If I have to go striking, I will go to strike. If I have to go down, I will go down. So this is my version of adjustment. It's, I have a lot of techniques. I have a lot of everything to choose what I will play against you. And this is more like dangerous, I can say. What is like you never know what you will face off.

This is the thing that what I can explain, what is adjustment. But listening to her quote, I really understand she doesn't know what she is. talking about. Maybe she's like saying words, but she don't know what exactly is this means. Well, let's ask you about this then. The card, do you know what place you're going to have on the card? Now, if it's a title bout, the lowest it would be is the co-main event, probably. Do you know if you're the main or co-main? Like, what's the word on that? Not yet. You know, I don't know yet what the place, what's the numbers. I know the one important thing, it will be. It will be my title defense. This is everything that I want to know. And for now, I just like keeping my mind

fresh and don't try to do, I'm trying not thinking too much about the fight, but I'm already started my preparation, but I want to put my mind in there like this fight mode in right time and right place. And it's not yet there. It's not yet. because for now I have my sister's fight and then she'll like I say she's gonna fight in a less than one month in San Petersburg Russia against Roxanne Medifery and like I said it's gonna be first female you see fight in her in history of Russia and now my like all my mind all my thoughts it's about her fight I trying to help her as much as I can in her preparation and to do everything as I can to make her successful in her fight.

Last question. Last time you fought in Chicago, you had a great win over Holly Holm. One of the better wins of your career in terms of getting your name out there, of course. You're back in Chicago. You've got to be happy about that, right? It's got a good place for you, or do you not really think about places you fought as good or bad? No, yes. I'm thinking about this place.

It's a very nice place for me. And I have a very good memory about this place. And one of another side, why Chicago is good for me, it's because we have the huge community of Kyrgyzstan people, my home country people. That's right. And so much restaurants of Kyrgyzstan food in Chicago. So, you know, every time I remember about Chicago,

I already excited to be there and to try all these, like, amazing. tasty food. Oh, that is amazing. I totally forgot about that, but you're so right. Well, you know what? We really appreciate your time, Valentina. I know you're training every day, but I'm looking at that blue water in the pool and the nice weather. I can't keep you from it any longer. So thank you for carving some time out for us. Can't wait for UFC 238 and go enjoy Thailand. Thank you very much. And you know what's amazing thing? That today's Sunday here. Today is a good day, the rest of the day. So we go, we will go around, just enjoy our day and explore all the beaches as we can.

Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, thank you, Valentina. Have fun on the beaches. Bye. There we are. Appreciate the champions time. All right, we're going to try something new here. Why not? What do we honestly have to lose? It is time now for a segment Danny has conceived of. It's called Is Normal.

There you have it. It is normal. To better understand this, it is the brain child of Danny Seguer. Let's get Danny on here. Danny, how are you, sir? I'm doing great. I'm doing fantastic.

Good. Well, at least one of us is. All right. What are we about to do here? Well, you don't seem too excited, but I think you will in just a second as soon as we get these clips rolling. So basically as normal,

it's going to be a segment we're going to bring up every now and then. When the opportunity arises. Not every week. Not every week. And we're going to just talk about and show something that, you know, is normal in our sport of MMA. But in other sports and for other sports fans, it's probably considered crazy. So, you know, the schedule opened up a little bit with Masvidal not being able to make it on the show. So, you know, what a perfect time to roll it out.

And this segment is about him. So we're kicking out. How fortuitous. Yeah. And Is Norma was a little tribute to Anderson Silva? So, shots out to that, man. So let's get right into it. There was a little bit of a fight of a bra

right after Jorge Masvedal's fight against Aaron Till, which caught some people by surprise, some others kind of believed they would go down. So let's take a look. All right, let's see it. Hold that. Let's talk about that opening sequence.

Maybe, maybe not. There's the replay there. Maybe we can bring down the volume in that clip. By the way, I can't say anything when people say George for Jorge. Yeah. I get it. Yeah.

All right, we get that one. All right. Can you put us back in the thing? Yeah, there you go. All right. So. That's when he gave him the old three piece and the soda. We'll get into that in just a second.

We'll get into that in just a second. All right. First of all, what was your reaction as soon as you saw these clips roll out? I thought it was so funny when Dana White was out there being like, I can't believe this happened. Look, Jorge Madsvadol is not a feral animal. That's not who he is. But he's got a little bit of that Habib in him, man, where like, dude, if you want to fight Jorge Mazvedol, not a problem.

There are ways to arrange it. There are ways to arrange that in a way where everyone profits financially that is peaceful, at least, you know, before and after. He's a sportsman. Yeah. But if you want to get, if you want to, I mean, dude, I've said it before. He's from the Kachay, man. Like, you want to go that route?

He can go that route too. You know what's funny is after the whole Habib thing, and I realize that that was like crazy when he jumped out of the octagon. I'm not saying these two are equivalent. But there was a lot of, oh my God, this is terrible for MMA. Everybody and their brother about this is like, yeah, three piece of soda. Woo! Go Jorge!

There was like massive, massive fan cheering for him. Yeah. It definitely has a different feel than that. I think it's also because a lot more people were involved and I feel like it looks uglier when, you know, it's a brawl when it's like 15 people going at it, you know, rather than just two. And it was over as soon as it started too. Right, yeah, it was something very short.

But yeah, a lot of people came out saying like, oh, you know, this is a black guy for the sport. And I'll tell you, I'll tell you something. I've kind of had a little bit of change in mind when it comes to these things, like very recently. Like, this is not any other sport where it's soccer or, you know, American football or tennis. Their job is to fight. So, you know, they do this Monday through Friday on a regular basis. You know what I'm saying? It's not, it's like when you're playing soccer and then you get into a fight and, you know, post-game, there's something.

thing different there than than it is whether you take it into a context of boxing or MMA, right? Like, these guys are so used to fighting. I mean, they do it on a regular basis that for them to hit that button is very, is a lot easier than other athletes. So I think we need to take that, you know,

into consideration. Well, they also like, again, he's a father, he's a sportsman, but as a way to adjudicate a dispute, Jorge Mazelal throwing hands, it's not some unusual experience. Yeah. Right. Like, how do I solve this problem? I know. Right.

Like a lot of us, how do I solve this problem? I'm going to go to your manager. You know, I'm going to sue this person. Horne is like, I got a simple solution. Bob, hop, hold that. Exactly. Like, if you were to tell, like, some random dude on the street, like, hey, man, in the next two days, you're going to get into a random street fight, you know, people would probably would never leave their house and be scared. I think if you tell that to Jorge Mazvail, he'd be like, okay, thanks for a heads up.

Like, you know, and now he's looking out, you know, over his shoulder. So, you know, these guys, these guys live by different rules. Now, this is not, I don't condone this. I don't think this is appropriate. No, everyone did it to be a huge problem. Of course. And I think. But at the same time, the pearl clutching, I'm not prepared to do it.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Especially, like, you also got to look at, like, the aftermath as well. Like, sure, Leon Edwards was a little bit injured. I believe he was cut open a little bit and was bleeding. But, you know, nothing extreme happened, you know? Nonetheless, you know, it's still unfortunate. But, all right, well, now let's go to the reaction of the, two guys, they took to social media,

both in different ways. All right. And they reacted to this. So let's take a look. Okay. All right. So Leon Edwards posted on Twitter, very happy with my performance

last night against a very high caliber opponent in Gunner Nelson. Much respect to you, Gunner. That was a great fight. And look forward to seeing you bounce back. Thanks to my team, friends, family, and fans for everything. Bermanhan, stand up.

As I said, that's 70 in a row in the hardest division in the sport and I'm coming for everyone. World champ 2019, mark my words. If you're not with me now, you will be. And Jorge, fair play for sneaking your shots in when you could. But now you're effed. If security wasn't there, you wouldn't have made it back to the U.S.

I'll see you soon. I see you soon, boy. I'll see you soon, boy. Now, here's what Masvidal had to say about the situation speaking with ESPN. He's a real one. He's a real one. He comes by saying some stuff. July, get your ass kicked to July.

July and I go, maybe, bro, whatever, because maybe I want to kick your ass in April. Maybe I don't want to wait until July. Maybe I don't even want to fight you in a prize room because you're not worth a training camp. I'll just fight you here if you're a scrub, you know? I tell him to just say it to my face. Like, man, you're saying it walking away.

That's not like we're both men, you know? And as I'm walking up to him, I got my hands behind my back to signal. I'm not coming here for problems. But he put his hands up like this in some video and he walks towards me. Well, where I'm from, if you do that, you're going to punch me in the face, and that's not going to happen.

You're on your own, board, you're JV, beta. You're all what you are, boy. You're just a loser in life, man. You're not going to get a hit off me, you know. So I had to give him the three-piece with the soda and just glide out of it, you know. And then some of his friends tried to sucker punch me. Those guys did a big mistake. So I'm doing my interview.

Yeah, yeah. We get the idea. By the way, he was asked later, you know, do you think there might be repercussions for it? God, he is so slick. he his, did you see his answer? No, no, I did. His answer was so clever. He goes, well, it was Brett Okamoto interviewing him.

He's like, Brett, I don't know if you saw the tape, but I was, I was fearing for my life. That was self-defense. He pitched it as, you know, this was a, I mean, the total Florida stand-your-ground law, you know what I mean? Like, I was under duress. I felt threatened. Yeah, I had to do what I had to do. And like, not from the word go. Like, the first thing he ever said to the media, he presented himself as the victim.

And maybe you could say that he is. I'm just pointing out. It was like, he's so smart. He's so street, but he's so smart, you know? It's kind of funny. Extremely. That's what I'm saying. He reminds me a lot of like the Diaz brothers.

Like, those guys are brilliant. They're super smart. Don't you remember Nate Diaz real quickly at the airport? They asked him how he's going to fight Connor. He's like, I'm going to give him to cash check and go home or something along that variety. It was similar to this. Yeah. So, yeah, I think the three piece with a soda, that will fall as, you know, is normal, not, you know, impressed by a performance.

You can keep going on. That's now part of MMA vocabulary. Would you agree? Yeah, it is. You know, it's funny, he doesn't want to talk about it. Yeah. I was actually talking to his manager before the show, before everything collapsed. But he'll talk about it.

But remember before the fight when he was like, why are you guys asking me about Ben Ascran? I have to fight Dary and Till. Like, why are you guys bringing this up? Which I actually thought was a halfway decent point. Here's the thing. It's like, Jorge doesn't want to talk about Leon Edwards, which I get because he's looking up. I want to focus on the title. I want to focus on those guys.

but dude, you punch a guy in the face while you're getting interviewed on, what was it, ESPN or whatever it was. Yeah, man, like, people are going to ask you about it. Like, it's going to be a thing whether you like it or not. So, kind of funny in that regard. It's like you kind of blew up his profile a little bit. You know what I mean? I mean, this went viral, you know, and it was- It was not only the attack, but I think the three-piece with a soda added so much more.

So perfect. This is just, this is a, you know, classic moment in M-M-A. That's a new internet meme, the three-piece with the soda. For sure. I'm not sure which one was the three-piece and which was the soda, but in the end, he got it done. Yeah, I wonder which one's the soda, right? Yeah. All right.

Well, with that being said, that is normal. All right. We'll be taking, you know, stuff that happens at NMA. We'll be recapping it. For a first time, not so bad. Yeah, it's not bad. For a first time. We can build on this, Danny Seguera.

For sure. I mean, it's going to be a work in progress, for sure. But, yeah. All right. How about this? Don't go far because it's time now for the sound off. All right, there he is. He is the three piece to my soda,

the one and only Danny Sigura. All right, Danny. I am told by you that there was a quote, and I'm not, tell me if I'm making this up, a record number of calls. Yes, it was insane. Now, what is your theory about why there were so many? Three percent, three piece in the soda, son.

I guess do people love it? People love it. If you, if you steal on someone in the, face. And then you have funny things to say about it. That's the ultimate one-two combo. And the best thing is how laid back he is. He's got a track suit, full piece on. He's got the beanie. He's just sitting there slouching. And he's so calm about how he goes about it. Yeah, the track suit with the beanie. Yes. And the beanies half on, like the top looks like the reservoir tip of a condom. He's just kind of out there chilling, you know? Like couldn't have a

care in the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, that guy's a treasure. They should promote him. I've been saying for a while he's been this way, you know? And by the way, it's not. something to laugh at, it's a good thing. He's bilingual. You know this as well. You know, if they have plans for Latin America, Jorge Madsvidal could be featured

at the front of some of them. Oh, yeah, for sure. 100%. Even, even, not even South America, just Miami. Have an event in Miami? Because I know they're having an event in South Florida. It's sunrise.

It's not the same thing, though. Have an event in Miami. You'll Romero headlining. You can easily put Jorge Mazvita on the coming event and he'll fill that. Yeah. Yeah, two Cubanos there. For sure, yeah.

All right. Well, this, let's start off with a little bit of a positive note. I think there's a lot of negativity in the world nowadays, and, you know, we got a positive call. So it's not really a question, but just wanted to set the tone for this segment. What's up, Luke? This is Jeuneico from Los Angeles. I just want to tell you, thank you so much for your fight breakdowns that make the credno so much easier and cooler. Their breakdowns are epic.

It's cool to see you coming into your own, even with a sense of humor, talking a little bit of math. and I just want to say, I really appreciate what you're doing. You're killing it. And I look forward to all the content that you're creating. And I always let those whack commercials run just in hopes that it generates a little bit of revenue for you guys. Really appreciate you guys. Thanks. Wow, he left a message just to say that.

Just to say that. Hey, shout out to Jette Uliko from L.A. Thanks for listening. What a nice message. I was going to go put a bullet in my mouth after the show. But now I feel so much better. All right Do you like my uncomfortable jokes?

No, that's a really nice message. That's a really, really nice message. Yeah, it's nice, man. And it's really nice when, you know, fans say nice things because, like, on Twitter and social media is just a ball of negativity. Everyone has something negative to say. Everybody always criticizing everybody.

Let's just be nice to each other, man. It'll make the world, you know, a lot better. That honestly was very, very, very nice. I really, thank you so much for watching, of course. And for taking the... Dude, here's a thing. It's very easy to be negative. As someone who is not.

negative, I can tell you that. When someone does something positive, you actually have to go out of your way to do that if you think about it. Like to send a note to someone to say thanks to, you know, hold a door open. It's something super small for like an old lady or something. You have to like do something to be positive. It's just, you can just be naturally negative, you know. Yeah. That's also one of the reasons why, you know, it's a side of know, but I don't really pay too much attention to reviews. Don't put too much stock in them because I feel like people that like the product, you know, don't take the time to, you know, put something, write a review about something nice. It's just, oh, this is a good product and they keep buying it and go along the way.

And the people that write reviews are the people that didn't like it and, you know, go on there to sort of vent. I'm the kind of person who writes reviews. Oh, really? Yeah. Dude, I've written like two reviews. I mean, I don't actually write reviews, but I'm that kind of a person. Okay. All right.

Well, let's get started with the questions. First up, you know, Jorge Masvedo, a big weekend for him. Two wins in a row. Hey, this is Michael Orietto. I'm calling from My Not North Dakota. What's up, Luke Thomas and Danny Seguer? I was just wondering, we saw Masseval land a vicious CO. Not many Cubans in North Dakota.

What is next for Masvedal? I heard Kamara Usman's manager say that he thinks Masvedal deserves the next shot. What do you guys think? Thank you. Yeah, there's the thing. I mentioned this briefly before. I do, I really have a ton of respect for Jorge Mazvedal, but I just don't know about the title shot thing.

Yeah, I'm with you. Dude, here's the thing, man. Ben Ascran's sitting at 6 now, and you've got Mazadol at 11. Edwards is at 10. Here's the thing I was trying to tell, I was going to tell Jorge. It's like, dude, you completely blew up Leon's profile. Like, you can't steal on a guy in the face, do media about it, and then be like, okay, well, he's behind me in the pack. Well, he might be, I mean, depending on how things shake out, because he beat the number three guys, so he's probably going to leapfrog him at this point.

But, dude, you completely blew up his profile. You just created a story. the fight now everybody's going to want to see. So it's like, I don't, I completely understand why he did it that way. And he also noted in the interview that he didn't realize the cameras were going to follow him when he walked away. He thought they were just going to stay on a static shot. So he thought he was just going to sneak over and give him the old, the three piece, and then that was going to be it. But you could do Ben Ascran.

You could do, I don't know, Dosanjo, somebody. There's got to be this. I really respect Jorge, but that's just not enough for a title shot. It's just not. I mean, yeah, the guy got a super impressive win, beating there until, you know, it's no easy task, especially going into his hometown, everything that, you know, that comes with that. But nonetheless, you know, the guy was on a two-fight losing streak before that, you know, he just got a win.

You got an interim champ that's on quite a streak with, obviously, in Colby Covington. I think that's the fight to make as far as the title goes. And, you know, for Masvid, I'll give him another fight. I wouldn't mind him being in a title eliminator opportunity, whether that's with Ben Ascran or look, even the Leon Edwards fight, I'd like to see that at some point. There's already a storyline, you know, build up here, you know? For sure. And I floated this idea before the whole three piece with the soda.

But I wouldn't mind seeing Jorge Madh Vidal face Mr. Robbie Lawler. I know Lawler trained at ATT, so I don't know what their relationship is. If they're friends or not, they'll fight each other. But, you know, if they're cool with fighting each other, I think that's a great fight. And I think Loller, although coming off a loss, I think, you know, was controversial enough where his stock didn't drop and he still has a name. so I feel like it won't be a step back for Jorge Osweil. What do you think about that?

Yeah. When people think about fights to make, one of my weaknesses, actually, I'm not really good at these to be candid with you. People often have very specific interests in mind. Like, I want to see this permutation. And I sometimes get that, right? Or like in a really big case,

why you really want to see Connor Nate 3, right? That's one like you just want to see. But to be honest, for most of these elite, fighters. I don't really have too much of a specific inclination. He could fight Ascreen as far as I'm concerned. He could fight Covington as far. I mean, I knew he's not going to. But sure, your suggestion doesn't ring any bad bells with me. Yeah, fine, great.

I'm the opposite. As soon as the fight is over, my brain starts ticking. Yeah, I don't do that. I think I was a matchmaker at some point in my previous life. It's one of the reasons why I don't do like breaking news about about who's going to fight who next. Yeah. I never found it that interesting. I realize that the rest of the public does, right?

Because look at the numbers. Like, if you break news, X is going to fight Y. Kaboom. You're like that. Most people are like that. For some reason, I'm not quite, again, if Mayweather's going to fight McGregor, I'm like that. Okay. But generally speaking, I'm just like, okay, cool, next permutation.

Interesting. All right, well, let's take a look at the other side of that equation. Mr. Daryntill. What's next for him? Hey, Luke, it's Tanner from Colorado. So just wondering what your perspective is on Darren Till and what he should do next. After a vicious knocker like that, I'm not really sure what's left for him in 170, maybe a Robbie Lawler fight, but I don't know.

But then I look at the 185-pound rankings, and it doesn't look pretty for the top 15 for as far as a matchup for him. So I'm just curious, what do you think you should do next? You take some time off. Should, you know, how do you guys get over something? All right. Thanks. Well, to be clear, I don't coach fighters, so I'm in no position to tell fighters how they should or shouldn't get over losses in terms of how they emotionally approach the game, Danny.

But this is a really easy answer. You need to go to 185, okay? There's not life for you right now at Welterweight. He's very young and he's very talented. He got a little bit ahead of himself with some of those wins and the hype to which I and other media members are probably partly responsible. So I'll, you know, I'll jump on that grenade a little bit. But the reality is, after losing to Woodley, okay, not a big deal, which didn't land a punch.

And you were very competitive with Jorge Mazvedal, and so you got viciously chaot. But as you saw on the Monday morning analyst, that left was landing over and over and over. And I just feel like some of his style of defense with the lean and everything, there are some seasoning. So when you look at the top 15 or whatever it is at middleweight,

you might say, well, who's he going to fight there? Guys, he doesn't have to fight anyone in the top 15. He needs reps, right? he still has the potential for greatness. He was competitive with Jorge. He dropped Jorge Mazvedol in the first round. Let us not forget that, okay? And took him down, I think, once.

In any event. So I would say, go to middleweight because there's a question here about how much the punching power of Mazvedal was affected by the weight cut of Till. We've seen it. Guys cut a bunch of weight. They can't take shots like they normally can.

Now, Jorge is not some kind of pure. he hitter, I'm just saying, that's something you have to consider. Go to middleweight and start a life there. Figure it out, get better. To close, I have done it before and I've made the mistake. Guys, learn from my mistakes. Do not count fighters out who are in a bad spot. By the way, it's often the case that the up-and-coming contender, when they lose to the champ, they often lose their next fight. Look at Volcan Usdemeur. He's lost two since then. That's true. Happens all the time. So what I'm saying is, don't underplay things, some changes are in order. But don't overplay things, the sky is falling.

It's not. Make some helpful changels. Start a new life, get some seasoning, and you'll be great. Yeah, I would love for him to go up to 185. I know this is an idea he's kind of teased with. But look, even if it's not like a permanent home, like at the end of the day, success, a lot of success comes after experimentation, right? Like if you're just constantly trying the same thing over and over, you know,

it's hard to find success there, right? If you're trying different things, then maybe you can see what works, what doesn't, and that way you can start, you know, through process of elimination, you can find what works for you. Look, you don't have to commit to 185. Go up and see what happens.

Just have one fight. See how your body feels. See how the weight cut goes. See how your skills translate. See how, you know, the size and all that comes into play. Look, 170 might have to be his home. I remember a long time ago, I was saying, yo, Josealdo needs to go up to one

155. Jose Aldo needs to go 155. He's too big for 145. Because remember, there was that video that came out where he was like crying during his weight cut and like it was for the Mark Harmonic fight. At some point things are pretty pretty scary. But look. And he was already in an older stage too, you know. He regrouped. He figured things out. And dude, he's never missed weight. And he's always looked good in in his performances at 145 ever since. I would say, I would add to that. You know, Anthony Rocco Martin told me something last week. I really stuck with me. I asked him, how much weight do you? cut to get to 155. He's 170 now, but how did you, he goes, from 195. And I said, Jesus Christ, man. It's a lot of weight. Yeah, it's not unheard of, but that's really a ton of weight. Here's what he told me. He told me he cut that much weight because he wasn't confident that he could win without the size advantage. And he said, now that I'm confident in my skills, I don't need the size advantage. I'm fine at welter weight. Now, I don't know what Darren Till's situation is. Yeah. But when you've got a young guy who's very confident, but still developing his game, I wonder how much he's telling himself that size advantage is an ingredient for success.

Yeah. Because I bet it's not nearly as true as he's telling himself it is. I bet he would be much better at middleweight, at least to your point, kick the tires on it. Yeah, just see what happens. And I think this is when the UFC has to come into play and kind of give him a hand there. Like, look, this guy is an exciting prospect. You know, he has an exciting style outside of the cage. He's also a very interesting character, a guy we can promote.

You know, let's give him, I'm not saying an easy fight because there's no such thing as an easy fight in the UFC, but let's give him, you know, not a top 10, not a top, you know, five. Let's give him a top 15 maybe a little bit outside of that and see how he fares, you know, and kind of, you know, help him, help him, you know, build his skills up. Now, if he does decide to stay at Wolterweight, I wouldn't be super opposed to it because he did make the wait for this fight. in that case, I think a Mike Perry fight would be awesome. I think there's something there. We kind of teased that fight for a little bit,

and I think it's enough of a step down from the very elite, right, to kind of give them an opportunity to bounce back. Sure. All right. Now, let's switch gears and go up a few weight classes. This is actually a very interesting point, a very interesting question that this caller brought up. Hey, this is Miranda from Lansing, Michigan.

I have a two part here. The first is in regard to the segment that Luke did on second acts being exclusive to the heavyweight division. Not exclusive. Do you think that the lack of weight cutting holds any significance to its exclusivity? And the second one I have is that I'll be attending UFC 238 in Chicago, and I'm interested in what you guys think the main event will be. My inkling is the rematch between Henry and T.J. Let me know what you think.

Interesting. Well, first of all, a very smart call, number one. Number two, I don't know what I said back on the show. I have to go back and listen to it, but at my radio show, I do afterwards, obviously. On that, I made the point on the air. Folks have hit me up since then. The second acts are not exclusive to heavyweight.

Right, but you did say that. Yeah, exactly. So, for example, you've seen Seroni go from lightweight to welterweight, then back to light. And every time there's like this reinvention, you can do it that way. Knock, knock for Darren Till. Like, then we'll see what happens with Luke Rockrolled.

at 205, right? So, no, it's not exclusive to them. So, yes, the weight cut is a function there. The second part of the question, I don't know what they have planned for 238, but that's a, I've heard some rumblings. That's a very good guess. I think so, too.

And it just seems like they're committed to resolving whatever happened in Brooklyn, so here we are again. Yeah, I think that's a very good guess. Right now, the comming event for that, or what we think the common event is going to be a title fight between Jeff Schenko and Jessica I. So I wouldn't be surprised

if they put in, you know, Suhudo versus Dilla Shah in that one. Which is so funny, it's like both guys have nothing to do with Chicago. Now, Shevchenko a little bit, given some of the native populations there, isn't that weird?

It's like, we're going to go to Chicago where we're going to put in two guys from Southern California. Hey, Chicago, enjoy. I feel like with some, I feel like you can't always get the regional thing every time, you know,

a champion from... You can if it's a priority. Boxing promoters never fail on that one. That's true. Yeah. But I mean, when you got a schedule to roll. That's exactly right. When they're like, all right, we got, we got 50 dates this year.

We got a blah, blah, blah. There's just no way to properly coordinate that. Yeah, for sure. Also, there are some fighters that I feel like there's a stronger case to put them in, you know, in their hometown. Like, I feel like, for example, like a John Jones or a Brock Lesnar, like, they can fight anywhere. They'll make big numbers. You know what I'm saying? And I feel like this is kind of like the same.

I mean, obviously, it'd be nice to have them in California. But I feel like it's fine. What they do is they get these headliners that, you know, that fights that need to be made, what fans want to pay for, keep them in rotation. And then what UFC typically does now is to find as many Chicago-based fighters to fill the rest of the card. So it's almost like you get that by default.

But there really is no substitute for a hometown hero and a homecoming. For sure. If you've never been to a fight where a guy is true, our lady, is truly embraced by their hometown. It's a different feel, man. I mean, look at there until walking out. And that was London. That wasn't even Liverpool.

Exactly. That felt big. felt different. I was at, what was it, like, UFC on FX, 23 or something like that, when Chris Wyman fought Kelvin Gasolum in Long Island. Yeah. Dude, at the arena, like, you definitely get a different sense than you do watching at home. Like, when Chris Whiteman walked out, like, all these Long Island guys were walking out,

and it just felt, you know, felt big, man. It felt, feel nice. People, people, the game is built off there. I mean, look, it'll do well. Chicago's a great market for UFC. I just always find it kind of funny. It's like Dominic Cruz fought T. T.J. Dillishaw.

In Boston. It's like, all right, I guess we're going to go to Boston now. Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, I think this caller brings up an interesting point about the weight cut, man. There should be a study on that. I'd like to see fighters that are in the lower weight classes that don't cut weight and, you know, track their longevity in the sport versus fighters that are known to cut a lot of weight. Yeah, the one that I was stuck with is when I spoke to Chris Levin maybe a year or two after he retired.

And I asked him what he was doing to combat some of the rigors of the game. He goes, well, I have to take medication the rest of my life because I wrecked my endocrine system from weight cutting. He's his, the hormones are no longer properly regulated. I mean, we work in the media. You know, you sometimes hear things that obviously you can't report on because it's things you hear, it's rumors, things that are not true. But like, dude, how many times does a fighter, you know, make a crazy weight cut in and you hear like, yo, you know, they weren't really the same after or like they had to take, you know, a few months to recover from that, you know, weight cuts are. How about this? I spoke to Tiago Alvis recently.

You know what he told me? before he fought St. Pierre, he was passing out almost every day. Yeah, I remember that. Is that not, this is just what? What? Yeah. Yeah, dude.

It's crazy. It's insane. All right. Now, let's keep the UK theme going on. All right. Talk about somebody that just got inducted into the Hall of Fame. Won't be Theresa May. Hey, Luke and Danny.

This is Zach from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Looks like Michael Bisbing's going to get inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. I was just wondering what's your favorite moments of his inside and outside and outside of the Octathon R. Wow. Thank you, guys. Let me know. Boy, that's a good one.

Very good one, man. Why don't you go first on that one? All right. In Cage, I think, man, there's so many. There's a bunch. I have this. This is maybe not my favorite moment, but this is something that for some reason it always stuck with me

when he fought Dennis Kang. He got dropped by Dennis Gang. I think in the first round. That was after the Dan Henderson knockout. Yeah. And I remember he went back to his corner, super chill, And he asked him, yo, what happened? He had no recollection of him getting dropped.

And they were just like, yo, you got dropped. And he's like, oh, okay. And then he went out there and destroyed, you know, in rounds two and three, I believe. So, you know, that was a pretty cool moment of his. But I think his highlight has to be, you know, the upset over Luke Rockwood. I think nobody expected that comeback, you know, that career comeback. That's why he's in the Hall of Fame. Exactly.

And when he won that, you're like, oh, my God, dude, this guy just never let go of his dream. man, he is the, you know, epitome of persistence and, you know, and just grind. And, you know, I think that will forever, you know, cement his career and sort of, you know, put him up there. And outside of the cage, this might be kind of underrated, but I always enjoyed his stare-downs at the wayans, man. The whole finger thing that he does and he gets in the face, like it's, it always gets you hyped up like, okay, man, you know, this is a fight. Yeah. Yeah, he has tons of moments. So for me, I mean, the best moment is easily when he put the punch on Rockhold.

I mean, there's just no, there's no close second. Although knocking Jason Day out with the knees and the way he did was pretty epic as well. You know what? It shouldn't define him and it's not going to. But one of my most and least favorite episodes in his life, do you remember when he spat on the corner of Jorge Rivera? Yep. That was really despicable in certain ways.

And in other ways, that was kind of like, I get it, you know? I really get it. Like he is one of these guys who, dude, he fights with emotion and passion. And again, maybe here's the thing that people don't want to admit. Some of my favorite moments in life as a sports fan are when there was bad conduct on the field of play. Right. You know, when Sean Taylor blew up that kicker, I forget his name now at the Pro Bowl, it's like, Sean Taylor, why are you blowing up kickers at a, at the Pro Bowl?

Because, bro, that's just who he. was, you know, when certain guys fought, you know, when somebody charged the mound after being hit by a pitch, why, you shouldn't charge the mound, but this is who he is, bro. Or pick another, you know, pick any other sport that you like where somebody just had unsportsman like conduct. We had Ronaldo doing the Cajonnes thing to Cimione recently, right? It's the same, like, well, here's the thing. I'm having a dramatic experience. But the point being is, should they be doing things like that? Of course not. But sometimes do they let you into a window of the psychotic competitor that they are?

So I'm not praising Michael Bispin for spitting on someone's corner. What I am going to say is, dude, he was a psychotic competitor, and he was good at media, and he was good at all the things, you know, getting the fans into it or antagonizing his opponents. But he also lived and breathed and died with this kind of stuff. And so, yeah, it was on sportsman-like, but I don't know. There's something to be said for that. Yeah, that was not an act, you know, in this day and age where, like, people put on acts

because they want to be outside of the media. Dude, he was, he was 100% himself. his entire career, never changed. By the way, one of my favorite moments you ever, do you watch NBA at all? No, no, no, really. Do you know what the malice and the palace is? No idea.

Do you remember back in 2004? Yeah, exactly. Remember back in 2000? It was a huge black eye on the NBA. Oh, was it the fight? When Ron Artez jumped into the audience? Yeah, yeah. Okay, bro, when Ron Artec, now known as Meta World Peace,

he thought he got hit by a water bottle. He wrongly identified the guy. Dude, when you see this giant man run into the audience, It just reminded me of all those times where people talk shit on Twitter and then real life smacks them in the face quite literally and they get real quiet, real fast. That's what, dude, the Malice in the Palace

is literally one of my favorite sports events. What year was that in? 2004, I was bouncing. I was still in Columbia. Dude, I was bouncing in New York City at the time and it was so cold outside. And I remember looking into the place where I was bouncing.

They had the TV on and everyone was rushing in there. I thought there was a fight inside in the bar. So I go inside the bar and everyone was just looking at the TV because it was made. It was complete mayhem. And, yeah, it's one of my favorite.

Just some unsportsman-like conduct is fun. Sorry, it's fun. There we go. Yeah. All right. Well, first of all, congrats to Michael Bisping for getting into the U.C. Hall of Fame.

We'll deserve. Let's talk about another gentleman that was, didn't fight at UFC London, but was definitely made his presence known. Hey, Luke, it's Jimbo from Alabama. I'm saying well. I want to see if you put your matchmaker hat on for a minute. All right, there, Jimbo.

What would you do with then asking if you were Dana White? Jorge Mosvodon, Leon Edwards, seemed to be tied up. He ain't going to fight Tyron Woodley, and Colby Covington seems next in line for Kamara Usman. Just wanted to see what you think you would do with him next. There's RDAs floating around out there, I guess. But I don't know, just want to see what you do with him. Seems to be building up enough hype for himself that people want to see him get in there.

Anyway, have a good afternoon. Roll Tad. I knew! I knew he was going to do that. Roll damn time! We got no room for the War Eagle over here. Ro damn time. How many Europeans are watching this not knowing what Roll Tide is? No idea.

But we got several European callers. I know. If you're from Europe, just Google Rol Tide versus War Eagle. And that will explain it. I knew he. That's the guy that poisoned the tree at Auburn. That's the guy.

Roll damn tied. What do he ask about Ben Ascreen? What to do with Ben Ascern, man? You could do the Mazvedol fight? Yeah. You could do, God, you know, I think he really, wanted the till fight because that would have been two big mouths and big personalities going after each other. But I guess Masvedol's won. You could do Leon Edwards against them. You could do the

Lawler rematch, which I don't think they're really clamoring to do. Ponsonibio's kind of floating out there. RDA is kind of floating out there. There's a few different directions you could go. Which one do you like the most? You know what? I have no strong opinion on this yet because I'm waiting for Ben Ascgren's goals or like what is he doing in this division? because he hasn't made his goals clear. And I feel like he could be much in, much in a position like Jose Aldo, where he could be a detriment of the division if, you know, he doesn't align his goals properly.

And I love Ben Asking. I think, you know, he's great for the sport. And I'm glad that he's in the UFC. But look, he's made it clear that he's not going to fight Tyrone Woodley, right? And Tyrone Woodley just lost his belt. And there's like a weird kind of sense in the air. Like, look, I don't know if I'm going to fight for the belt because I don't know where Tyrone is right now. I don't know if he's going to get an immediate rematch or if he wants to win one and then they'll plug him back in.

I think when he decides what he wants to do, then I can start, you know, doing matchmaking in my head. Because, for example, like, if you're just going to let Tyron, you know, rule that division and get, you know, let him get a second crack, any contender that he's going to fight,

if he wins, it's just going to be bad for the division. Because, you know, you're eliminating contenders, but yet you're not going to take the opportunity to go fight for the belt because your friend might take that opportunity. You know what I'm saying?

So if he were to say, look, my ghost to fight for the title and this is what I'm doing, No problem. Put him up against Jorge Masvidal, number one contender. And then the winner takes on, you know, the winner of Colby Usman.

But if you're not in that state, I kind of don't want to see you fight Jorge Mazvidal because I think Jorge Masvidal is an interesting character, very skilled fighter. And I don't want to see, I don't want to have an opportunity where a contender gets eliminated, but then not another contender is created.

You know what I'm saying? So if you're just in it for fun fights, go fight Damien Maya. That'll be interesting. Robbie Loller. There's very interesting options out there. But if you're, go as the belt. Yeah, go fight Masvedo.

Go fight these guys that are at the top. Agreed. Right? Very much like Jose Aldo. That's why I don't like the Volcanovsky matchup, by the way, just throwing that out there. It's just like, dude, you know, you fought Max Holloway twice. If you're at this point, if you just want to do fun fights, you know, don't ruin contenders. You know what I'm saying?

Bro, he wants a shot at that belt one more time. By the way, with Max moving up, who knows? Yeah, maybe. I guess that does open up. I change the things a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. All right. Let's see.

You want to talk about Darren Till as a prospect? You want to talk about Connor McGregor. What's next? We'll do McGregor. We have talked about him at all. Okay. Let's do it. Hi, this is Joseph Mossman, calling from Atlanta, Georgia.

I wanted to know what you guys thought about who Connor should fight next. I know that Max Holloway and Dustin Puer are fighting in Atlanta. I'm just wondering to see your thoughts if you thought that might be a good option next. I don't know. All right, so let's think about this. Tony's probably going to be in ice for a little while. Habib's not back till whenever. I don't think Connor's legal troubles will really impact his ability to get a license and fight.

It was a phone. Yeah, I mean, I don't, yeah, I don't think it's like. Did you see him, by the way, doing all the victory laps out there? I did, yeah, celebrating San Paddy. Oh, wait, so this is an interesting note. By the way, hold, hold, hold, whoa, wait, time out, time out. The Irish have berated me for what you just did. So here's the deal.

it's either St. Patrick's Day or Paddy's Day. What it's not is St. Patty's Day. Okay, my bad. Sam Patrick's. I did it wrong. Dude, I've been in America for 40 years. I've done it wrong. But apparently that's a sacred thing.

Okay, I didn't know that. So it's St. Patrick's Day. Excuse me. St. Patrick's Day. All right. Well, in that parade that he was in, he said he, they're talking about July, right? I think the winner of Porier Holloway is too quick of a turnaround, right? Possibly depends.

Depends how that fight goes, of course. But, dude, I expect that fight to be a war. I think we all do. So, I don't know. I really like the cowboy fight, man. But if they're not going to make that happen, you know, something I'd like to see is the Nate Diaz trilogy. I'm a little sick of the Twitter back and forth between those guys.

It's dragged out a bit, a bit. It's been going on for Nate Diaz and Connor McGregor. Yeah, it's boring. At this point, it's like, yo, you know, either fight or don't fight, man. You know what I'm saying? So I'd love to see that, you know, trilogy get put to an end and then have Nate Diaz go on his way and Connor McGregor go on him. his way. So I think that could be fun. Yeah, again, I told you how I feel about matchmaking

before. Unless they matched him up with somebody I'd never heard of, I'd probably kind of get it, but you can get the winner of those two guys in Holloway and Poirier, if you want to wait. If they're going to really push him along, I guess he could do, you could do, who's Gaichi fighting coming up? Barbosa. Barboza, yeah. You can maybe get the winner of that. Yeah, you can maybe get the winner of that. Pettis, if he wants to go back down to 155, you could do. That's why I don't like the Thompson fight. Man should be at 155. But he's got some options.

Yeah. There's some options. For me is cowboy, but yeah, that doesn't look like it's going to happen. Nate Diaz. And then after that, just I guess, whatever is available. All right, we have time for one more and more? We have time, yeah. All right.

Let's talk about Darren Till, but, you know, overall in the big picture, let's talk about, you know, prospects in M.A. Hey, Lou Thomas, Ben. It's the girl what's going on, man. This is Derek from Valle, California. I don't know how many black listeners. that, but we are out here. Check it out with the

Darren Till loss. The back-to-back loss is actually, do you guys think that like maybe fans and media kind of write off these young guys a little too quickly? I mean, we've seen it with the Bellator, Aaron Pico, who's only 22, he's taken back-to-back losses as well. Do you guys feel like maybe that they write

them out too quickly? I feel like you guys have too much left in a tank for that to happen. Let me know how you guys feel about that. Great show. Yeah, appreciate that. that shouts to all our African-American listeners. Danny, here's what I would say. We do write guys off too early.

The problem is we also overhyped them up front. And it's, dude, here's the thing I have said this. I've made this point a number of times, if not on this show, my other one. Prospecting in sports is very difficult. I want you to consider something. The NFL Combine just happened, which is where they do all their physical measurables,

some skill tests. Right. And again, for a European listeners, you must understand this is America's most popular game by a wide margin. Look at the athleticism you see on display at the NFL Combine. It will take your breath away. D.K. Metcalf at 6-4-240 running a 4-340-R dash is incomprehensibly athletic. Okay. That's where all of our best, not all, but many of our best athletes often end up. So they have the combine. You have, you know, three, often four years of tape to watch these guys as they grow at Division I colleges. Then you have your interview. then you have the draft, okay? Even then, these billion-dollar organizations, all the teams are basically worth a billion or more. They get it wrong constantly, constantly. Even with all that information, they make bad calls about who's going to be good and who's not.

You've got NFL All-Pros who went undrafted. You've got first-round drafts that are out of the league in a year or two. They get it badly all the time. So it's not just MMA media that does this, Danny, but I've really believed this. Trying to figure out who's good is hard. You get your LeBron James who comes along, okay, it's pretty easy to tell he's good

or a Habib or a John Jones or whoever. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the guys who are just less than that. Dude, there was a while there, you know how stupid I am? There was a while there I was like, well, Connor, I didn't know. I was like, we'll see how good he is. But Joseph Duffy, that's the guy

that's going to be really the main fighter out of Ireland. And he is a good fighter. But when we talk about what their upside was, it was totally wrong. It's difficult, dude. It's really, really difficult. So, just have a measured approach. Again, let's see what he does in his next step.

If he goes up a weight class, who he fights. But it would be very foolish to slam the door on him. It's also foolish to build guys up before they're ready. Yeah. Yeah, I think we definitely can't, you know, write them off. We've seen guys, you know, like Demetra Johnson, that for a while in their career, you know, they were just a very good fighter, you know, but that was just about it. That's as much as people had it, you know, that was the perception out there.

And then all of a sudden he turned into what, you know, you can make an argument. He's one of the greatest fighters ever. Same thing with Anderson Silva. He experienced several losses early and, you know, he was a good fighter in pride, but he was never crazy good. And then later in his career, that's when he became who he is now. But I would like to say, you know, although the media does sometimes, you know, write people off, like, fairly quick, you know, there's also guys that we know that come in and you know that person has it. like a George St. Pierre, dude, the dude only lost twice his entire career.

You know what I'm saying? John Jones, technically he's never lost his entire career. Technically he has. You mean, I'm saying, yeah, in reality, he's never lost. I mean, he lost against Matt Hamill, but, I mean, who considers that a loss? Daniel Cormier, the only person who he's lost was John Jones. You know what I'm saying? And that pool is very small.

And I would say that, you know, although I don't want to discard there until just yet, but his chances of entering that pool given what we've seen so far, you know, they do decrease a little bit, right? No, they do. Do you lose back to back? That's what most of these elite guys don't do. Exactly. You lose to the champion and then, you know, a guy who has been off for a while and I had two straight losses.

Yeah, dude, there's some real recalibration. But again, the one thing I would say is, you know, and again, he was also competing in the wrong way class or a different way. But Demetrius Johnson, he didn't come in sitting in the world ablaze. People thought he lost to Miguel Torres. And then he turned to be like the best fighter ever. So am I saying that Darren Till is? Can rebound and be the next St. Pierre? All right, maybe that seems a little unrealistic.

Yeah. But can he come back and make something great of himself? You bet your ass he can. Yeah. And he'd be very full. I don't know that he will, but do I think he can? Yeah, of course, man. The guy is very, very skilled.

He just has some issues. He just 26, man. Dude, 26. You know, I was doing when I was 26. Crying in parking lots somewhere, drinking cheap wine. This dude's out here lost to Horny and Masel. All right, man. I must be devastating.

But chin up, dude. You are well ahead of the curve. Well ahead of the curve. Yeah. Something I would like to say is I hope for Darren Till's career, I hope that, you know, he does take a step back and kind of doesn't rush things because I kind of felt like he was rushing things with his career. And I think something this weekend, Mark Diake said in one of the post-fight scrums, you can watch that on MAfighting.com's YouTube channel. Who fought Joe Duffy, right? Exactly, yeah.

He beat Joe Duffy. He said, I thought, he even thought about asking the UFC to release him because he's like, yo, I'm so young. Like, I'm clearly developing. It might be even better for my career to develop my skills outside of the UFC. and then, you know, come back in ready. You know what I'm saying? Obviously, I'm not suggesting that there and so should ask for his release,

but, you know, maybe, maybe don't fight the top five for now, you know? Yep. Anyways, I think we're good on questions or you want one more. No, what's it about? The UFC adding more weight classes. Why doesn't the UFC have one?

Save that one for later. Okay. Save that as an ever green one. Great job with this normal this week. I like where that's going. A couple tweaks we'll make to it. We'll talk about it. Yeah, that was, you know.

That was a dry run on air. What are you going to do? Yeah, exactly. But I appreciate all the good work you did this week, my friend. I'm behind the scenes, all right. Thank you so much. We'll talk next week. All right.

Appreciate you guys watching. Remember, keep sending the tweets using the hashtag the MMA hour. Keep calling 844-866-2468. You can leave a voicemail if you're international, the MMA hour at voxmedia.com. And until next time, stay frosty.